Monday, March 27, 2006

LONDON, ONTARIO - A city street collapsed under a sport utility vehicle early Monday, leaving the vehicle nose down into a deep sinkhole that city engineers said was caused by mysterious events beneath the city.

The driver of the SUV escaped without serious injuries but was taken to a hospital for treatment of shock, said a Fire Department spokesman.

The vehicle was barely visible from street level inside the 12-foot-wide hole, partially in a pedestrian crosswalk a few blocks east of Adelaide. It was resting atop a gas main and crews had to wait for the gas to be turned off before removing it, said a spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection.

City officials have been evasive in their response to the issue. One source, who wished to remain annoymous, said city hall is trying to play down the issue as it's sure to draw more attention to London's current pothole situation.

"Just try and get an answer about this one - they'll probably deny it's even happened."

Her Worship, when faced with reporters on her way to chambers, would only say "I think people are really making a bigger deal of this than it deserves. This might be a problem if there was somewhere worth going to in the east end. But there's not."

I bike, not for the excercise, it is because I am cheap and don't want to pay for truck gas, or the bus. Anyway, I noticed two sink holes with the orange cones placed around them on my way to work. What does orange cones mean to a child? They mean come here, look where you are not supposed to. I kept thinking those holes are getting wider, and a small dog or a child could go missing very easily. If you look down them they do seem to go on forever. I kept wondering why they were waiting to fix them. They were fixed yesterday to my surprise. I suppose it takes a news story about someone losing their car in a black hole before anything gets done in this city.